Sharp end of history

March 24, 2004 — 11.00pm

A local historian has found the long-lost relic of one of the more dramatic, bizarre and comical incidents in Australian history - the cavalry officer's sword used by Francis de Groot to crash the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Andrew Moore, associate professor of history at the University of Western Sydney, located the sword on a farm in Ireland. The National Museum of Australia plans to bring it back home.

Professor Moore made the discovery after giving a paper at University College Dublin, on Irish-Australian history, in which he mentioned the sword. "A man from the audience approached me after the talk and said his name was Frank de Groot," Professor Moore said yesterday. "He said, 'I can solve the mystery of the sword. I have it'."

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Frank de Groot is the nephew of Francis, also known as Frank, de Groot. The historian accompanied the nephew to his farm in County Wicklow, where the Irishman indicated he was amenable to having the sword returned to Australia.

"The sword is being valued," Martin Portus, of the National Museum, said yesterday. "We are fairly confident of buying it."

A successful deal would have pleased de Groot, who told aSydney newspaper 40 years ago that the sword was in a London bank vault. But he added: "I should like to see the sword go to Australia."

De Groot was a Dublin-born antique dealer and manufacturer of fine furniture. He refitted the retailer David Jones, was an associate of Sir Samuel Hordern and made a ceremonial chair for the governor-general Sir Isaac Isaacs.

But his most remembered claim to fame came 72 years ago last Friday, on March 19, 1932. He worked his way on horseback into the official party at the opening of the bridge.

The NSW premier, Jack Lang, was to cut the ribbon, but de Groot got there first, slashing it with his sword and declaring the bridge open "in the name of the decent and respectable people of NSW".

De Groot was a member of the New Guard, an organisation Professor Moore calls Australia's "rather premature manifestation of inter-war fascism". It opposed Lang's Labor government.

De Groot had fought with the 15th Hussars on the western front in World War 1, when he earned his sword. He transferred to the 15th Tank Battalion as an acting captain.

Upon being dragged from his horse after cutting the ribbon, he insisted that a police sergeant was not entitled to arrest an officer of the 15th Hussars. An arresting policeman remarked: "I never had any experience of arresting an insane man on horseback."

He was taken to a reception centre for the mentally ill but found to be sane. He was fined £5 plus £4 costs for offensive behaviour and maliciously injuring one ribbon. He sued for wrongful arrest and reached an out-of-court settlement. His confiscated sword was returned.

Professor Moore said that, although a fascist, de Groot "did democracy a good turn". The New Guard had wanted to stage a coup and kidnap Lang. De Groot had deflected even more fanatical members from more militant action.

"Because it assumed a comical flavour, the long-term effect of the incident was to diminish the reality of the dangers of right-wing extremism in Australia," Professor Moore said.